News round-up 6 April

Mumbai: It is end of the week; US markets ended on a subdued note in a trading thinned week ahead of the Easter Holiday as investors positioned for the monthly US jobs data on Friday, reports Wall Street Journal.

Analysts expect 210,000 jobs additions last month, keeping in line with the recent trends. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index ticked down 0.88 points, to 1398.08, the Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.4%.

Asian markets were also trading lower with major markets shut for holidays.

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average traded down 0.5%, paring some of its opening losses, while South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.1%. Markets in Hong Kong were shut on account of Good Friday holiday, reports MarketWatch.

Indian markets are shut today on account of Easter holiday but following stocks will be in focus on Monday when markets resume trading.

Reliance Industries has entered into an agreement with the Republic of Tatarstan for investing in petrochemical refinery or crude oil refinery businesses, reports Mint. The Republic of Tatarstan is part of the Russian Federation located 797 km from Moscow and its main wealth is crude oil from the casing head of an oil well which has reserves more than a billion tonnes.

Biocon chairman and managing director, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said the regulatory environment was the only factor holding back the India’s progress in biotechnology. Mazumdar said fact that the government has not given approval for genetically modified crops after Bt cotton and has not showed much interest in clinical trials indicates that it is not serious about biotechnology.

Maruti Suzuki on Thursday said that exports in FY13 will decline as global markets continue to remain sluggish. In FY12, Maruti’s exports stood at 1,27,379 units, down 7.9% from the previous fiscal. The management said that overall sales in 2012-13 will grow by 10% and will be mainly driven by diesel cars.

There could be some cheer for home loan takers in coming months. HDFC Bank said home loans could see a 0.5-0.75% reduction in interest rates ahead of the festival season if the Reserve Bank of India reduces rates on April 17th policy, reports Economic Times. Homes sales in Mumbai have dipped by over 40% in the last one year while other cities have seen a 20% drop after RBI raised interest rates 13 times since March 2010.

Coal India is likely to resort on imports to meet the president’s directive of supplying coal to power companies, reports Business Standard. Coal India chairman said CIL may not be able to meet production target of 464 million tonnes in FY12. CIL will need 70-80 million tonnes of additional production to fuel 20,000 MW of generation capacity in power sector.

Supreme Court rejected Essar Oil’s plea against a January ruling which said it can’t defer sales tax payments to the Gujarat state government, reports Wall Street Journal. The court’s decision means that Essar, which had asked to be allowed to defer the payments until 2021 will have to set aside Rs 6,300 crore of sales tax deferment benefit.

Coffee drinkers have something to cheer about; Seattle based Starbucks is finalizing locations across major malls in Mumbai and Delhi for opening Starbucks in September, reports Business Standard. Starbucks - $10.7 billion American Group has signed a joint venture with Tata Global Beverages and is completing deals for around 10 locations in India.